Managing product information

1. A method for use in managing product information, comprising: acquiring textual information describing a first chemical product from a first supplier that is suitable for a particular use; searching an electronic database that is populated with chemical information obtained from catalog spreadsheet files from multiple suppliers for matches to the acquired textual information, the chemical information comprising product names, substance names, chemical structures for at least some of the products, and physical property information for at least some of the chemical products; and identifying from the search a second chemical product from a second supplier that is suitable for the particular use.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises determining that the first and second chemical products include the same chemical substance.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises determining that the packaging of the second product belongs to the same packaging category as the packaging of the first product.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises determining that respective product entries, in the electronic database of chemical product information, for the first and second chemical products reference the same substance entry in the electronic database of chemical product information.

5. A method for use in managing product information, comprising: providing an electronic database of chemical product information populated with computer data downloaded from catalog spreadsheet files from multiple suppliers, the chemical information comprising product names, substance names, chemical structures for at least some of the products, and physical property information for at least some of the chemical products; acquiring textual information describing a chemical product, the textual information comprising chemical substance information; searching the database for matches to the acquired textual information; determining, from the search that multiple names refer to the same chemical substance.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining comprises: deriving a chemical substance identifier from the textual information; and identifying a product name entry in the electronic database that is linked to the chemical substance identifier in the electronic database.

7. A method for use in managing chemical product information, comprising: providing an electronic database populated with computer data downloaded from catalog spreadsheet files from multiple suppliers, the database comprising chemical substance information, chemical product information, and chemical structure information; acquiring information from a first catalog spreadsheet file from a first supplier, the acquired information describing a first chemical product and comprising a product name, a chemical substance identifier, and information describing the first chemical product; searching product information in the electronic database for matches to the acquired information, the product information comprising product identifiers; if product information matching the first chemical product is identified, adding at least a portion of the acquired information to the electronic database and associating the added information with the first chemical product; if product information matching the first chemical product is not identified, searching chemical substance information in the electronic database for matches to the acquired information, the chemical substance information comprising substance names, chemical structures, and substance identifiers; if chemical substance information matching the acquired information is identified, adding at least a portion of the acquired information to the electronic database and associating the added product information with the matched chemical substance; and if chemical substance information matching the acquired information is not identified, adding the first chemical product and the acquired information to the electronic database, associating the acquired information with the first chemical product, and creating a chemical substance entry in the database that is associated with the first chemical product.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the searching chemical substance information comprises: determining whether the electronic database specifies a chemical name that is included in the acquired information.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the searching chemical substance information comprises: determining whether the electronic database specifies a chemical structure that is specified in the acquired information.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the searching chemical product information comprises: determining whether the electronic database includes a product name that is included in the acquired information.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: deriving a quality identifier and a substance identifier from the acquired information; and deriving a product identifier from the quality identifier and the substance identifier.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: prompting an end user to specify a subset of the acquired information as a source for populating a table of the electronic database.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: using a subset of the acquired information as a source for populating a table of the electronic database.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: evaluating the acquired information for accuracy; and rejecting at least a portion of the acquired information if an inaccuracy is found in the acquired information.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the evaluating the acquired information for accuracy comprises determining whether a number in the product information has an error.

16. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: by reference to the acquired information in the electronic database, determining whether the electronic database includes information for an acceptable substitute product.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the determining whether the electronic database includes information for an acceptable substitute product comprises: determining a chemical substance that is the subject of the acquired information; and determining whether the electronic database includes an entry that references the chemical substance.

18. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: deriving a quality identifier from the acquired information; and deriving a product identifier from the quality identifier.

19. A system for use in managing product information, comprising: a provider providing an electronic database of chemical product information populated with computer data downloaded from catalog spreadsheet files from multiple suppliers, the chemical information comprising product names, substance names, chemical structures for at least some of the products, and physical property information for at least some of the chemical products; an acquiror acquiring textual information describing a chemical product, the textual information comprising chemical substance information; an analyzer searching the database for matches to the acquired textual information; a determiner determining, from the search that multiple names refer to the same chemical substance.

20. A system for use in managing product information, comprising: an acquiror acquiring textual information describing a first chemical product that is suitable for a particular use; an analyzer searching an electronic database that is populated with chemical information obtained from catalog spreadsheet files from multiple suppliers for matches to the acquired textual information, the chemical information comprising product names, substance names, chemical structures for at least some of the products, and physical property information for at least some of the chemical products; and an identifier identifying from the search a second chemical product that is suitable for the particular use.